Seychelles - 08 Sept - Crossing between La Digue and Mahé (1 Viewer)

[P_Cas]

Hi all,

Ferry crossing between La Digue and Mahé, rough sea and bad light: poor photos.

Birds 1&2- 2 birds together - don´t know if the photos are of one or both birds




Bird 3 - about 15 minutes and some miles latter


Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Paulo

 

[THE_FERN]

Perhaps roseate for birds 1 and 2? Struggle to know what else there might be with that bill colour.

Perhaps gull-billed for 3

 

[P_Cas]

Hi again,

Thanks for the help.

Bird 1&2: Sterna hirundo has red bill and feet but this birds seem whiter.

Bird 3: I didn't consider gull-billed because it is not that common in seychelles. It has only a handful of observations in ebird. I though Sterna sumatrana but the tail seems wrong for it.

 

[THE_FERN]

Hi again,

Thanks for the help.

Bird 1&2: Sterna hirundo has red bill and feet but this birds seem whiter

I thought your bird elongated, very pale with the long, orangy coloured bill I associate with some roseates. On the other hand tail seems quite short. But happy to be proved wrong.

 

[Allen]

Bird 3 isn't a Sandwich Tern? Seemed to see indication of a pale tip to bill but v distorted by pixel artefacts.

 

[sicklebill]

They look like Crested Terns, bill colour of first two suggests Great Crested as it looks yellowy on my screen, and the later ones look orange and could fit Lesser Cresterd Tern, with Brown Noddy alongside

 

[THE_FERN]

They look like Crested Terns, bill colour of first two suggests Great Crested as it looks yellowy on my screen, and the later ones look orange and could fit Lesser Cresterd Tern, with Brown Noddy alongside

Don't think can be either. Lesser should have much darker back than we see here, greater slightly. For me on two monitors, the first 2 birds have a bill roughly the same colour as lesser, but with a much paler back (hence my initial comment: I don't see a difference in bill colour between first 2 birds)